THE DEADLY AMANITA 6 1 



The poison thus identified, it was reserved to an 



American authority on edible fungi, Mr. Julius A. 



Palmer, of Boston, to discover the fact 



Mr. Palmer's of its confinement to but one fungus 



discovery family — the Amanita. 



In the year 1879, in an article con- 

 tributed by him to the Moniteur Scientifique, of 

 Paris, he states : 



" Mushrooms are unfit for food by decay or other 

 cause, producing simply a disagreement with the sys- 

 tem by containing some bitter, acrid, or slimy element, 

 or by the presence of a wonderful and dangerous alka- 

 loid which is absorbed in the intestinal canal. This 

 alkaloid, so far as known, is found only in the Ama- 

 nita family T 



To Mr. Palmer, then, is due the chemical segrega- 

 tion of the Amanita group as the only repository of 

 this deadly toxic. 



It has not been discerned in other species of fungi, 



whose so-called " poisonous " effects are more often 



traceable to mere indigestibility, the 



Lesser selection of "over-ripe" specimens, or 



poisoning to idiosyncrasy, rather than to their 



distinctly poisonous properties. 

 Many mushrooms of other families which do pos- 

 sess ingredients chemically at war with the human 

 system — as the Russula emetica and certain Lacta- 

 rii, for instance— at least give a fair warning, either 

 by taste or odor, of their dark intentions. 



Owing to the numerous deaths every year conse- 

 quent upon mushroom -eating, and nearly always 

 directly traceable to the Amanita, the discovery of 



